(SoE) School of Engineering

<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

Bamboo as a substitute to timber, in housing, has occupied the attention of researchers due to concerns of deforestation and the consequent impact on environment. The use of bamboo as a load distributor is well accepted in rural areas. Replacing timber with bamboo as a structural load bearing element could have far reaching consequences for rural housing. This in turn would have implications for greening wastelands and earning carbon credits. However, introduction of innovations is more than a technology issue. The paper deals with a possible approach which could entail acceptability and sustainability of the innovation. Based on field inputs from the State of Jharkhand, the study brings to light that, for better acceptance, it is preferable that minimal changes are introduced in the existing houses, only on those aspects, where constraints and limitations are felt. Thus, going in for a totally new model of innovative housing is not a preferred option. The present paper proposes a participatory approach involving awareness building, through grassroots organisation, supported with skill development to transfer the technology in the rural housing structure.

World University root node

Electrical Engineering

Journal of Rural Development

Strategising innovations in rural housing using bamboo

In this paper, we propose a novel framework for segmentation of documents with complex layouts. The document segmentation is performed by combination of clustering and conditional random fields (CRF) based modeling. The bottom-up approach for segmentation assigns each pixel to a cluster plane based on color intensity. A CRF based discriminative model is learned to extract the local neighborhood information in different cluster/color planes. The final category assignment is done by a top-level CRF based on the semantic correlation learned across clusters. The proposed framework has been extensively tested on multi-colored document images with text overlapping graphics/image. © 2011 IEEE.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition, ICDAR

A CRF based scheme for overlapping multi-colored text graphics separation

Indexing and retrieval performance over digitized document collection significantly depends on the performance of available Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The paper presents a novel document indexing framework which attends the document digitization errors in the indexing process to improve the overall retrieval accuracy. The proposed indexing framework is based on topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The OCR's confidence in correctly recognizing a symbol is propagated in topic learning process such that semantic grouping of word examples carefully distinguishes between commonly confusing words. We present a novel application of Lucene with topic modeling for document indexing application. The experimental evaluation of the proposed framework is presented on document collection belonging to Devanagari script. © 2011 IEEE.

Searching OCR'ed text: An LDA based approach

<p>Piano Key Weirs are modified version of labyrinth weir with innovation to improve discharging capacity and more compatible for constructing on a existing or new spillway with lesser space requirement and structural stability. The objective of this study was to identify the Piano Key Weir in which the maximum discharge capacity at different UW with p (height of weir) could be achieved. To achieve this for different flow conditions, length magnification ratio (L/W) is taken from 3.56 to 7.40. Also, other parameters are taken in different combinations for getting optimum configuration of Piano Key Weir for better performance. With this in view, three phases of experimental campaign on eighteen Piano Key Weir models are reported in this paper. The ratio (r) of Piano Key Weir to linear weir discharge for a given head was seen to be more than one and found to increase with magnification ratio L/W upto a certain limit of h/p ratio. It was also found that performance of ratio of inlet and outlet cell width was best when two cells were of same width. The analysis of discharge coefficient variation is correlated with h/p. © 2011 Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC.</p>

Civil Engineering

Center for Environmental Sciences & Engineering

ISH Journal of Hydraulic Engineering

Experimental study of hydraulically efficient piano key weir configuration

It is possible to obtain fine grained location information fairly easily using Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices. It becomes easy to track an individual's location and trace her trajectory using such devices. By aggregating this data and analyzing multiple users' trajectory a lot of useful information can be extracted. In this paper, we aim to analyze aggregate GPS information of multiple users to mine a list of interesting locations and rank them. By interesting locations we mean the geographical locations visited by several users. It can be an office, university, historical place, a good restaurant, a shopping complex, a stadium, etc. To achieve this various relational algebra operations and statistical operations are applied on the GPS trajectory data of multiple users. The end result is a ranked list of interesting locations. We show the results of applying our methods on a large real life GPS dataset of sixty two users collected over a period of two years. Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Computer Science and Engineering

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Mining GPS data to determine interesting locations

The Industrial Source Complex Short Term (ISCST3) model was used to discern the sources responsible for high PM10 levels in Kanpur City, a typical urban area in the Ganga basin, India. A systematic geographic information system-based emission inventory was developed for PM10 in each of 85 grids of 2×2 km. The total emission of PM10 was estimated at 11 t day-1 with an overall breakup as follows: (a) industrial point sources, 2.9 t day-1 (26%); (b) vehicles, 2.3 t day-1 (21%); (c) domestic fuel burning, 2.1 t day-1 (19%); (d) paved and unpaved road dust, 1.6 t day-1 (15%); and the rest as other sources. To validate the ISCST3 model and to assess air-quality status, sampling was done in summer and winter at seven sampling sites for over 85 days; PM10 levels were very high (89-632 μg m-3). The results show that the model-predicted concentrations are in good agreement with observed values, and the model performance was found satisfactory. The validated model was run for each source on each day of sampling. The overall source contribution to ambient air pollution was as follows: vehicular traffic (16%), domestic fuel uses (16%), paved and unpaved road dust (14%), and industries (7%). Interestingly, the largest point source (coal-based power plant) did not contribute significantly to ambient air pollution. The reason might be due to release of pollutant at high stack height. The ISCST3 model was shown to produce source apportionment results like receptor modeling that could generate source apportionment results at any desired time and space resolution. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.

Water, Air, and Soil Pollution

GIS-based emission inventory, dispersion modeling, and assessment for source contributions of particulate matter in an urban environment

In this article, stochastic finite-fault simulation combined with site response analysis is used to understand the spatial distribution of ground motion in Guwahati city due to three damaging earthquakes. The rock level ground motion for the scenario earthquakes is generated based on the stochastic finite-fault methodology. These simulated motions are further amplified up to the surface by equivalent linear site response analyses using the available borelog data at 100 different locations in Guwahati city. A set of twenty simulated rock level time histories for each event, are used to compute the surface level ground motion. Response spectra are computed and the results are presented in the form of contour maps, at selected natural periods. The mean amplification due to local soil deposit is as high as 2.2 at most of the sites in Guwahati city. Based on these simulated motions, an average site correction factor is obtained for soil sites in Guwahati city. The standard error in the simulated response spectra is also reported. The contour maps obtained will be useful in identifying vulnerable places in Guwahati city.

Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica Hungarica

Ground motion for scenario earthquakes at Guwahati city

Aluminum nitride (AlN) films were deposited on a variety of substrates (glass, Si, oxidized Si, Al-SiO2-Si, Cr-SiO2-Si, and Au-Cr-SiO2-Si) by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using an AlN target. The films were deposited without external substrate heating. The effect of RF power, ambient gas (Ar and Ar-N2) and sputtering pressure on deposition rate and crystallinity were investigated. The structure and morphology of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy techniques. These investigations revealed that the AlN films prepared in mixed gas ambient (Ar-N2) were highly c-axis oriented with moderate surface roughness on all the substrate. A strong IR absorption band was observed around 670 cm- 1 which confirms the presence of Al-N bond in the film. The dc resistivity of the films was measured to be in the range of 1011 to 1012 Ω-cm at moderate electric fields. The application of these films in piezoelectric based micro-electro-mechanical systems is discussed. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thin Solid Films

Deposition and characterization of c-axis oriented aluminum nitride films by radio frequency magnetron sputtering without external substrate heating

Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) is gaining global popularity as a potential feed stock of biodiesel and a candidate species for waste land reclamation. Although the oil yield of this species is better than any other non-edible oil yielding plants, the lack of agronomic practices defame this species for further exploitation. Furthermore, there is paucity of data on the growth performances and yield of JCL plantations. In this context, a systematic study on passport data and yield performance of JCL germplasms (including their indigenous collection number (IC No.), morphological characterization of seeds and seed oil content) growing in a large scale plantation site at Solar Energy Center, Gurgaon, India were carried out during 2007-2008. Ten elite accessions of JCL were screened from this site based on their growth performance and biomass characterization and were deposited at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi for registration. The oil content of the 10 registered accessions was ranged from 17% to 34%. Cluster analysis was performed to find out promising germplasms. Cluster analysis formed two prominent groups, each one with two sub-clusters. The promising accessions can be further explored for crop improvement programs. Furthermore, multi-locational trials are essential for optimizing the agropractices for maximum yield for a sustainable biodiesel production. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Chemical Engineering

Biomass and Bioenergy

Growth performance, variability in yield traits and oil content of selected accessions of Jatropha curcas L. growing in a large scale plantation site

In the present work we report design, simulation, fabrication and characterization of thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR). The FBAR has been modeled as a single port device with two terminals. The FBAR has been fabricated using Si-SiO2-Al-ZnO-Al structure. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering using Ceramic ZnO target in Ar-O 2 (1:1) ambient without external substrate heating. The XRD result confirms the preferred C-axis orientation of the films required for good piezoelectric properties. These ZnO films have been used to fabricate air gap type resonator. A four mask process sequence was used for this purpose. Lift-off process was used to pattern Al top electrode. In order to create the air cavity under the active device area, the bulk Si was etched in 40 % KOH at 80 °C. A specially designed mechanical jig was used to protect the front side of the device during anisotropic etching. Vector network analyzer was used to measure the reflection coefficient (S11: Return Loss) of the device. The resonant frequency of the resonator was measured to be 2.89 GHz as compare to the simulated frequency of 2.85 GHz with a return loss of 14.51 dB. © (2011) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.